Hierarchical societies or relations are characterized by differences in power based on rank, class, caste etc. The opposite of egalitarian. Dumont has (in studies from India) developed a concept of hierarchy that focuses more on the ideological and meaningful sides of hierarchy: Hiearchy is, in Dumont's sense, not so much an expression of power differences, as of worldview. Hierarchy also has third, more technical meaning, which we recognize in such expressions as "hiearchies of meaning", "levels of abstraction" (see also evolutionism and scale).